How Much Is That Little Wood Blank In The Window?

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@Lou Currier Matt said no can do. It would have to be in a different type of format. The forum software cannot run excel files live like that.
 
I'm new to buying and selling nice woods most of all burls. I have been charged the cost of bowl blanks for pen blanks and left happy as a clam.

What is a good way to price burls. I understand per pound is easy enough but what decides a fair price per pound?

I recently(3 months ago) cut about 30 burls off one single tree that fell at a friend's house. gold mine I know. so mostly green burls I believe maple. I have no idea how to price. I would like to sell a few on here since people seem to want them. I hate the fact I murder them being so new but I have no idea a fair price for me or yall. any suggestions of current price research?
 
My suggestion is to use the Search function here and look up maple burl. Go through the posts and look at prices. Tony
 
As Tony said but also we will want to know for sure what species it really is...

And when you search threads look at what ones actually gain a lot of interest and sell and which ones don't...
 
And remember that you need pictures of the actual item you are selling.
 
I can easily get pictures... I just want to make sure I do this all fairly for everyone. I don't have a 100 percent on species but I do have pictures of burls from the same tree that I have turned. people on here said it was obvious when seen.
 
I'm curious about one burl. it's in rough shape. I would definitely show thorough pictures of that one being its condition but it is very very big. 300lbs give or take. do people sell items that large on here?
 
You can try for sure. Unless it's someone local or someone willing to foot a big shipping Bill your chances of selling it are less than cutting it to nominal sized blanks.
 
gman2431 said:
You can try for sure. Unless it's someone local or someone willing to foot a big shipping Bill your chances of selling it are less than cutting it to nominal sized blanks.
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I would definitely cut it up but my saws are limited to chain saw 12 inch miter and a 4 in bandsaw lol. I will give something a shot at some point. for now I just enjoy having a huge burl lol
 
Thanks for the reality check, I can sure use it once in a while. For me I almost always buy small quantity but much larger than pen blanks but not larger than a lowboy, pembroke table or spice chest really. I catch myself all the time paying more for a small piece than I should but wood is so odd. For example stupid quartersawn beech. Who would think anything of it right? It's a dirt common european wood and it should be common as dirt in the US but it costs as much as a mahogany crotch half the time. You want to make some planes and you are paying for it. Rarewoods sold it to me for 10 dollars a board foot but if you go and try and get billets they charge a lot more. Have to be careful. I also bought some from another supplier that had some issues with moisture and it was more money so there you go. The stuff from Rory was absolutely perfect.

Now I wish Holly existed. That is the one I pay so much for because frankly there is one decent supplier I know of.
 
What blows me away is how much price inflation has happened in just the past year. Seems everyone is out to grab up those pieces of worthless wood and knots. Stabilizing and casting has taken a major turn in popularity to the point pieces that cost $20-30 shipped a year ago are now going for $60-70 now. Makes it tough on a part time like myself to acquire nice pieces of wood for turning.
 
Kevin said:
Many members don't worry about what they're paying for a wood blank or a board, as long as it looks good and it's within their budget. If that's the case with you, that's your prerogative and there's nothing wrong with it; sellers love you. Still others see a blank of wood that has tons of figure and sizzle or eyes and automatically assume the price must be in line with what is selling on ebay or surely someone on WB would say something, but we don't like to price someone else's wood even if we think the price is ridiculous. And let's face it, like it or hate it eBay is a major market maker.

The biggest issue I have with "over-priced" wood is this: There's a lot of new members many of whom are getting into call making and turning in general, and they have no idea what a fair or reasonable price is for a blank. And frankly it's hard to establish sometimes. So for those that at least want to know what they're paying per BF for a blank or a board, you can use this formula to figure it out and compare to any other blank of the same species/quality no matter the size. This doesn't take into account any variable such as premiuims added for rarity in size alone. For example, curly koa is expensive even in pen blank sizes, but larger pieces demand an additional premium on top of the BF price - and that's just one variable. Examples are the best way to learn so let's look at a typical turning blank:

View attachment 106726
a=7 7⁄8
b=27⁄8
c=7 7⁄8

The formula for finding the board feet in a square or rectangle is l x w x h in inches ÷ 144 or l x w x h in feet ÷ 12. Fractions must be converted to decimals. Thus, 7.875 X 7.875 X 2.875 = 178.29/144 = 1.238125BF If the seller is charging $35 for the blank then the last step in finding the $BF is to divide the BF into the price of the blank.

35/1.238125= $28.268BF

Is the blank worth over $28BF? Maybe it is,
Kevin said:
Many members don't worry about what they're paying for a wood blank or a board, as long as it looks good and it's within their budget. If that's the case with you, that's your prerogative and there's nothing wrong with it; sellers love you. Still others see a blank of wood that has tons of figure and sizzle or eyes and automatically assume the price must be in line with what is selling on ebay or surely someone on WB would say something, but we don't like to price someone else's wood even if we think the price is ridiculous. And let's face it, like it or hate it eBay is a major market maker.

The biggest issue I have with "over-priced" wood is this: There's a lot of new members many of whom are getting into call making and turning in general, and they have no idea what a fair or reasonable price is for a blank. And frankly it's hard to establish sometimes. So for those that at least want to know what they're paying per BF for a blank or a board, you can use this formula to figure it out and compare to any other blank of the same species/quality no matter the size. This doesn't take into account any variable such as premiuims added for rarity in size alone. For example, curly koa is expensive even in pen blank sizes, but larger pieces demand an additional premium on top of the BF price - and that's just one variable. Examples are the best way to learn so let's look at a typical turning blank:

View attachment 106726
a=7 7⁄8
b=27⁄8
c=7 7⁄8

The formula for finding the board feet in a square or rectangle is l x w x h in inches ÷ 144 or l x w x h in feet ÷ 12. Fractions must be converted to decimals. Thus, 7.875 X 7.875 X 2.875 = 178.29/144 = 1.238125BF If the seller is charging $35 for the blank then the last step in finding the $BF is to divide the BF into the price of the blank.

35/1.238125= $28.268BF

Is the blank worth over $28BF? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't - you have to decide. But at least now you know you have a low water gauge with which to measure the tide so you don't run aground, or a high water gauge so you don't go over the falls.


Burls: Even the dimension blanks you're eyeing on that auction site were bought and resold by the pound because they started life as part of an odd geometric shape, the board feet of which was nearly impossible to quantify easily. It can be done right down to the exact square inch believe it or not, but it takes too much time and is far too laborious when you're buying a container of them and no one has the time to do that. In addition to that, over time as these burls sit on shelves and in crates in storage and begin to dry, a MC adjustment must be added if they're sold at less weight than when they were bought. The reason for this is obvious. If I paid $5 lb for a 10 pound cap, I paid $50 for it. If I sell it for $10 lb immediately I doubled my money. If I sell it for $10 lb 2 years later but it weighs 30% less than when I bought it, I might not be making enough profit to stay afloat unless I add the weight loss charge. Who says money doesn't evaporate into thin air?

In addition to these variable, exotic burls are purchased by the KG which must be converted into pounds if resold to Americans and of course this is not difficult, but it's something to be aware of if you ever buy burls in any large quantity to resell and you don't want to lose your shirt. For years I thought buying and selling burl by the pound was just a way for burl purveyors to make money by obscuring the buyer's ability to convert it into BF. but this is not the case. Buying and selling burl by the kg/pound is a very accurate method once you learn the ropes and in fact, it's the only accurate and feasible way to do it on any large scale.

Hopefully this article will help you get a better grasp on what you're paying for that chunk of woody love. Don't be afraid to ask the seller to negotiate on the price if you think he is not being fair. "No, I'm sorry I just don't have the room" never killed anyone. But "Sure, I can do that!" is always a nice surprise. :wink:

:treehugger:
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Thank you so much for this info. We are new to all of this and didn't know what we didn't know. We have already learned so much from everyone on this site. Thank you
 
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